I've played through Downpour three times now, and I've just started my third Homecoming playthrough last night.

I played up until the cemetery in Homecoming, and it hadn't been so clear before... but Downpour definitely beats Homecoming (opinion of course).

-Homecoming feels so inconsistent with its pacing. -The environments feel so void of life compared to Downpour. -The characters are so much better in Downpour. -I much prefer the monsters & combat of Downpour. They instill a sense of fear & dread in me whereas HC often misses the mark entirely (except for the nurses; they freak me out). -HC has some truly shining moments with its story. But it's often muddled by its characters and the tedium of its overall gameplay. -The puzzles in either game aren't great, but comparing HC & DP, DP wins again.

downpour was just plain more scary and the plot was 10x better than homecoming. downpour was just more visually pleasing, combat, inventory.

although i dont understand in both games why the health bar is so messed up. i hated the health bar scar thing on the screen in homecoming, in downpour you have to pause the game and go to stats to view your health..common people make the damn health bar something normal for gods sake..dont understand why the health bar is such an issue with these games..

both games were rushed and have bugs/glitches/lag..which why neither is my favorite SH title.

my only grip with downpour other than the lag was the monsters..i liked the screamer monster but theres no need for it to be throughout the entire game from start to finish..the guy zombies i guess were dumb...the juggarnats were stupid..the only good scene with them was with the big juggarnat had 2 smaller dudes by a leash..that was cool..the cave monsters in devils pit were poorly done..my 2 year old son could draw something scarier than that..the only monster i really liked were the shadow manaquin monsters..but overall just really poor monster designs..i mean the boogyman is nothing but a bigger version of one of the order members from homecoming..be original..

Downpour FTW!!!!! WHY? I'll tell you why!Long time ago, i got Homecoming, i was very happy about it...for a short time,combat was so frustrating, story was too slow,sense of fear and tension was created using lack of ammo and health items and tough enemies(scarlett)...Ok, i could live with that, but when i came to Sheppard's house Otherworld, it all went to hell.The famous medals...they disappeared from my inventory and only good save file i had was million miles away. so i quit for good. Last night,i saw this topic and watched walktrough videos online to see the story,and i can only say: This is not Silent Hill...It's Homecoming. Lobotomised guy have amnesia, kills monsters around the town,saves the girl and they lived happy ever after.torturing pepole with circular saws,drills,stretching devicesâ„¢, knife sets from tv sale and barbed wire looks more like "hostel meets saw and they took wrog turn" mix. Base of silent hill fearâ„¢ is the fear of the unknown...Stretching deviceâ„¢ is scary but not in silent hill,it's just disgusting. movie based.

On the other hand, Downpour creates gloomy atmosphere with fog, rain,sense of guilt with mysterious characters postman is like Dhalia in SH1,turns up,say some gibberish,and disappears. Dj Ricks is like Lisa, wants to run away but he can't. And guess who is like Cybil? Only difference is that Cybil wasn't officer dick...ehehe. Downpour also have some flaws,like goofy combat, but hey murphy isn't member of swat team, some lags and glitches,but it's a decent game in silent hill series.

Downpour wins for me, not least because I really disliked Homecoming, for reasons already listed by other people here. I also happened to very much enjoy Downpour though, despite certain things that I wasn't too fond of or felt could have been done better. I'm not sure how I would have felt pre-patch, but as I only recently played it I thought it was a welcome addition to the series. I don't really have a concrete ranking system in my head for the games, but I think I overall prefer it to 3, 0rigins and Homecoming(which is the only one I actively dislike) at least.

Nether games are my one of my favorites, but I don't hate them. There are things I enjoy about both games. I think Downpour wins it for me because, unlike Homecoming, it took more risks and was a more exciting experience for me as a player. With Homecoming, from the beginning you had an idea how the game was going to be, it was predictable. Where as Downpour, I didn't know what to expect. It had a better sense of atmosphere because of that. Homecoming was void of that feeling, which made it hard for me to become immersed in the game.

I also enjoyed the side quests and trophies in Downpour, even if it at first it feels somewhat out of place in a SH game. They were a nice distraction during the many times I found myself lost and not knowing what to do next lol.

now that I have a newly found appreciation for downpour as much as Homecoming (both for being a far departure of what i know that is SH), I can say with confidence that given the choice between the two, it will always be a question of this:

which is the better game? the game that doesn't follow the lore, story, or laws of the first games in the series OR the game that doesn't follow the lore, story, or laws of the first games in the series AND isn't functional due to bad programming. Overall, I'll take the former.

which is the better game? the game that doesn't follow the lore, story, or laws of the first games in the series OR the game that doesn't follow the lore, story, or laws of the first games in the series AND isn't functional due to bad programming. Overall, I'll take the former.

I'm not sure which game you mean. By all counts, Homecoming did try and follow the lore and story of the previous Silent Hill games, and it actually suffered when trying too hard to be too much like its predecessors. It just, you know, didn't continue the same storyline like Silent Hill 3 and Origins did. And that was fine because neither The Room nor everyone's beloved Silent Hill 2 followed that storyline.

But I'm assuming the game that "isn't functional due to bad programming" would be Homecoming, since other than the frame rate issues in Downpour it's perfectly functional. I've even run into harmless glitches here and there, unlike Homecoming which has some pretty game breaking ones that might result in you having to restart the game all over again. And considering how frustrating Homecoming's gameplay is to begin with, then yeah. Downpour definitely hit the bulls-eye on that target.

which is the better game? the game that doesn't follow the lore, story, or laws of the first games in the series OR the game that doesn't follow the lore, story, or laws of the first games in the series AND isn't functional due to bad programming. Overall, I'll take the former.

I'm not sure which game you mean. By all counts, Homecoming did try and follow the lore and story of the previous Silent Hill games, and it actually suffered when trying too hard to be too much like its predecessors. It just, you know, didn't continue the same storyline like Silent Hill 3 and Origins did. And that was fine because neither The Room nor everyone's beloved Silent Hill 2 followed that storyline.

But I'm assuming the game that "isn't functional due to bad programming" would be Homecoming, since other than the frame rate issues in Downpour it's perfectly functional. I've even run into harmless glitches here and there, unlike Homecoming which has some pretty game breaking ones that might result in you having to restart the game all over again. And considering how frustrating Homecoming's gameplay is to begin with, then yeah. Downpour definitely hit the bulls-eye on that target.

Homecoming (IMO) is perfectly functional when compared to Downpour. Overall, I liked both games, but I can only play Downpour for a short time, as the CONSTANT frame-rates skips and freezing, ruin any immersive feel and just pushes my patients to the limit. Homecoming's flaws are not program related... most people - who hate the game - seem to hone in on the fact that it's too combat centered and "not Silent Hill enough" for the fanboys..

Despite having a really old PS3, the frame rate never really dropped to the point where the game wasn't functional. And this is coming from someone who has beaten the game multiple times. I've run into some hilarious glitches like Murphy's arm disappearing, but never experienced any freezing issues where I had to restart my system, unlike Homecoming. So that's why I'm confused.

Homecoming has some really game-breaking glitches, some that require you to restart your game or leave you completely screwed if you didn't save back far enough. Personally, I find that more non-functional than frame rate problems. It's more than just the combat that makes Homecoming a lesser, non-functional game to me.

I never finished Downpour, and now that I've become part of the glorious PC gaming master race, it irks me that there wasn't a port.

We're in the same boat. I mean, I still have Downpour for my 360, but I don't think i'll ever finish it. The choppy framerate, horrible monster designs, and poor gameplay/combat have left me completely turned off. I don't even think a PC port would get me excited, as it'll probably be a terrible one.

Downpour really let me down, I was really looking forward to it and thought it'd be the best SH game to date, and then I played it..

I really liked Downpour. I thought the overall atmosphere of the locations was fantastic, I was genuinely on edge throughout (partly due to Licht's awesome ost). I didn't consider the enemies to be lacking imagination, in fact I found them quite scary at points. I think there has been an attempt to copy the style of monster design from the first game and recapture the magic, and each game since has stronger enemies and weaker ones, so I don't think it's fair to completely dismiss Downpour's creatures - the dolls in particular were amazing.

Having said that I also liked Homecoming. I liked how they updated the game to make it for the next gen console while maintaining some sense of the Silent Hill franchise. I main reason it can never be my favourite of the newer games is the combat which doesn't feel part of SH at all. I liked how Downpour's combat sort of regressed to feel more like the original games, and getting rid of those god awful combos.